Fairfax dominates Walkley nominations

FAIRFAX MEDIA journalists have dominated nominations in print and online categories for this year's Walkley Awards, the highest honours in Australian journalism.

The Herald's investigative reporter Kate McClymont received a total of three nominations. McClymont was a finalist in the Investigative Journalism category for a report uncovering the alleged abuse of credit cards by senior members of the Health Services Union including the former general secretary Michael Williamson and sitting MP Craig Thomson.

For the same story, McClymont was also nominated in the Print News Report category.

She was also a joint finalist with Linton Besser in the Investigative Journalism category for their investigation into the complex network of business interests owned by the family of former NSW minister Eddie Obeid.

Fairfax swept all three nominations for the Best Digital Journalism category.

The Herald's Stuart Washington, Tom Allard and Conrad Walters were nominated for an investigation into the gifts received by federal politicians. That story was accompanied by an online database of gifts, compiled by UTS journalism students.

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Asher Moses, Simon Morris, Tom McKendrick and Tim Mummery were nominated for their video series Digital Dreamers, which focused on aspiring Australian tech entrepreneurs trying to make it big in the US.

Other finalists included the Canberra bureau political correspondent Katharine Murphy and photographers Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen for their coverage of Labor leadership challenges on The Pulse – Fairfax's online politics blog.

Fairfax's Middle East correspondent, Ruth Pollard, was nominated in the category of Sustained Coverage of an Issue or Event, for her reporting on the torture of Syrian dissidents.

The Herald cartoonist John Shakespeare was a finalist for best artwork, while Ellinghausen was a finalist for Daily Life/Feature Photography for his photo of Australia's Paralympic swimming team.

Jane Cadzow received nominations for two features written for Fairfax's Good Weekend magazine, on the mining magnate Gina Rinehart and the Australian author Bryce Courtenay.

Between them, the Herald and The Age had 21 nominations. Investigative journalists Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie from The Age picked up three and four nominations respectively, for stories including their expose on corruption within subsidiaries of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The Age photographers Jason South and Justin McManus were finalists for the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year.